2024-05-27 14:24:15 ¶ ●

I really love how Hannibal has the characteristics of a classical psychopath — he fundamentally doesn’t care about the opinions of other people regarding himself, he is fearless, he doesn’t mind pain, and he is manipulative, narcissistic, utterly charming, incredibly confident, and self-serving. Then all these attributes are compounded with a keen practicality, sentimentality, intelligence and philosophy, as well as a sense of grounding. He isn’t anti-social, unlike Will Graham, he is asocial, and not because he lacks empathy, but because his philosophy makes it such that he feels he is above everybody else. People are like senseless animals to him, unwilling to utilise their intelligence and bound to the laws of society. He is like a lonely, fun-loving, and easily bored god passing through such a crowd. I love the depth and relatability such a perverse perception of life gives him. If Hannibal was simply an unempathetic psychopath, I think it would be extremely difficult to like him and not think of him as a caricature.